Without question, suicide is a deeply personal and complex issue. The reasoning behind it, and the emotions felt by those affected, can’t be described in a just a few short sentences. Instead, we’re often just left with lingering questions, trying to analyze what happened.
That’s why seeing where people choose to commit suicide is so compelling to many of us. These suicides are especially notable when they’re done at famous and even popular (suicide) spots. Perhaps if we can understand that, we can better help those in pain.
1. West Gate Bridge
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Although a bridge, oddly 1/3 of jumpers have missed the water and hit the land, dying instantly.
2. Van Stadens Bridge
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Found in South Africa, officials have erected tall barriers to stem the flood of jumpers. There have been over 90 in the past 40 years alone.
3. Türisalu Pank
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Although known as a huge tourist destination, it’s also home to a destination of another sort…
4. The Gap
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Considered a “special” place to commit suicide, over 50 souls have perished in the last 100 years.
5. Sunshine Skyway Bridge
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Since opening outside Tampa, FL in 1987, over 200 people have jumped to their deaths, along with countless traffic accidents.
6. Prince Edward Viaduct
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Although the Mayor of Toronto had a huge wall raised to prevent jumpers, studies have shown that the overall rate of suicides in the city haven’t changed. They just moved elsewhere.
7. Pigeons’ Rock
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Once a popular suicide spot in the 1940’s, it has fortunately lost its luster.
8. Nusle Bridge
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Ten years after erecting a few, and after tons more suicides, the fencing was topped wіth three feet оf polished metal tо mаke іt impossible for someone tо climb up and over.
9. Niagara Falls
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There have been over 2,780 known suicides between 1856 and 1995.
10. NYC Skyline
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Of the 473 people who committed suicide in the big Apple in 2008, almost 80 were from the tops of skyscrapers.
11. Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge
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Since 1969 over 2,000 people have committed suicide at the bridge in Nanjing, China, making it easily one of the biggest spots in the world.
12. Mount Mihara
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After over 1,000 people (mostly female) committed suicide by jumping into the lava pit in 1933, Japan actually passed a law making it illegal to buy a one-way train ticket to the site.
13. London’s Underground
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The problem’s so bad that people throw themselves in front of trains on a weekly basis.
14. Lawyers Head
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A suicide location for New Zealand’s small population, it’s since been closed to the public.
15. Humber Bridge
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One of the most popular spots in all of Europe, it was highlighted even more after a mother jumped, along with her 12 year old son in 2006.
16. Golden Gate Bridge
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On average, a person jumps to his or her death from it every two weeks.
17. Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge
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More thаn 100 people hаve ended theіr lives by jumping off the bridge since іt opened іn 1966 and for that reason in 1993 the local government decided tо erect а Plexiglas safety barrier tо prevent more suicides frоm happening.
18. The Corinth Canal
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An international zone for suicides, over 15 nationalities have died here in the past few years alone.
19. Erskine Bridge
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Good samaritans signs line this bridge, along with four telephones begging anyone thinking of jumping to call for help.
20. Eiffel Tower
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Don’t Google “suicide + Eiffel Tower.” We warned you.
21. Eduardo Villena Rey Bridge
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Another bridge that had to erect tall walls to prevent suicide, locals believe that the street under the bridge is haunted by the souls of those who committed suicide.
22. Colorado Street Bridge
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One of the oldest suicidal bridges in America, the first recorded suicide was on November 16, 1919, while nearly fifty suicides occurred during the Great Depression from 1933 to 1937.
23. Beachy Head
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The problem is so large, the Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team conducts regular day and evening patrols of the area in attempts to locate and stop potential jumpers.
24. Aokigahara Forest
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Japanese authorities remove as many as 100 bodies found hanging here every while others can lie undiscovered for much longer.
25. Athenian Acropolis.
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The most famous suicide was that of Mary Weber, a German governess at the palace of King George I of Greece, who fell in love with a Greek army surgeon named Mihalis Mimikos in the late nineteenth century but jumped to her death after being forbidden to date him by her father.
(via List25)
If you know anyone who could use some help, please have them call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. With someone always there to talk to, even anonymously, we’re sure it could have all the difference in the world to someone struggling with these issues.
